Chelsea visit Tottenham: Blue predictions for a day at Wembley Hart Lane
Chelsea fans in the United States gave thanks on Thursday for the imminent end of the international break and a chance to mash up some spuds, er, Spurs on the weekend.
N’Golo Kante signed the contract he deserved on Friday, and today Chelsea go to the only stadium in London where you can watch the National Football League. Our writers predict a hard-fought match, with perhaps only a point at the end.
Barrett Rouen: Tottenham 2 – 2 Chelsea. Spurs and Chelsea draw in a match that gets physical from the outright. The current Spurs team has a bit more mustard than the previous iterations, but is still hamstrung by the fact their chairman refuses to invest at all. They have no one to deal with Eden Hazard, who scores and continues to demonstrate why it’s weird the rest of the team are getting contract extensions except but not him.
Rupert Meadows: 1 – 1. Spurs struggle to get through Chelsea’s defence with Christian Eriksen not at 100%, but capitalise on a defensive error. The Blues dominate areas of the pitch but struggle to penetrate Tottenham’s defensive lines, grabbing a lone goal. Neither team will deserve to win.
Kevin Peacock: 0 – 2. Chelsea win more games against Tottenham than they lose. They also win more at Wembley than they lose. With Harry Kane struggling to replicate his heroics in the National Stadium from the previous week, the Lilywhites fail to score. Eden Hazard doesn’t have that problem, scoring twice.
Scott Brant: 0 – 0. Chelsea will dominate large portions of the match, Tottenham will struggle to score or create. Coming off the international break I expect some sluggishness and mental lapses, resulting in a bore fest all around.
Abhishek Pancholi: 3 – 1. No one can say they didn’t see this coming. The warning signs have been there all along, but so far none of our opponents managed to exploit Chelsea’s weaknesses and assert their own strengths at the same time. That will change as England’s Harry Kane will head Spurs into an early lead. Chelsea will equalize at the start of the second half, but Spurs will carve Chelsea open like a Thanksgiving turkey to score two more.
The Blues will resort to fruitless balls over the top for Olivier Giroud to chase in the final quarter, but it will be all for naught. And so, like every other winter, an inquest into Chelsea’s rotten display will begin post-haste.
dark. Next. Loan army not quite at a mutiny, but certainly having an awakening
Gabe Henderson: 1 – 2. It’s going to be sloppy, but it’s going to be inspiring. The Blues will grab a late goal to pull ahead and grab three points to stay undefeated. Chelsea rarely lose to Spurs, but when they do, they’re out for revenge next match. After being drubbed at Stamford Bridge last match against Tottenham, the Blues are looking to inflict some pain on Tottenham’s home supporters. The winner will be world class as Chelsea come away with a much needed victory.